NEW  ZEALAND
FOLK * SONG		 The Ballad of Sir Edmund Hillary
 Willow Macky     1960

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Ed Hillary kept an apiary
Out Papakura way;
He hived his bees
Beneath the trees
And dreamed about the day
When he would climb Mt Everest
And proudly stand upon it:
His neighbours jeered
And said they feared
A bee was in his bonnet.

When Hillary was a tiny tot
He scaled the garden wall;
And he would dare
The steepest stair
As soon as he could crawl;
At school he climbed the flagpole high
And hung his cap upon it -
Not knowing yet
That he would get
A halo round his bonnet.

When Hillary grew to man's estate
He still pursued his dream;
One summer day
He sailed away
With a mountaineering team.
The world has hailed his conquest bold
So I'll make no comment on it -
Except that he
Got a KCB
And a feather in his bonnet.
Sir Edmund, he got married and
Assumed a parent's role;
But he could not rest
So went in quest
Of adventure to the Pole.
With death across Antarctic snows
He ran a race and won it,
And brought to fame
New Zealand's name
In his fur-lined leather bonnet

And a posthumous 2008 verse by John Archer
Sir Ed so loved the Sherpa folk
that for twenty years he toiled
To build them schools
And hospitals
On their steep mountain soil.
In every shrine an image hangs
 With Ed displayed apon it.
It's not thought odd
That he's a god
In a flower-draped silken bonnet

 

Sir Edmund Hillary


Hillary took this picture of Tenzing

Sir Edmund Hillary (b. 1919, d. 2008) was a Tuakau beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers.

With Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, he was the first to reach the 8,848-metre summit of Everest in 1953.

After Everest, Hillary led a number of expeditions to the South Pole and the Himalayas, and devoted his time to helping Nepal's Sherpa people who live in the shadow of Everest.

In Nepal Sir Edmund Hillary is a god. By standing on a patch of snow on top of the world's highest mountain, he gained a country. And from Hillary Nepal gained much more.

His influence - and that of his Himalayan Trust is everywhere. His picture hangs in homes, schools and monasteries, often near Buddhist shrines

The 46-year-old Khumjung School, which he helped found and build during his first foray into charitable work, has since produced doctors, lawyers and pilots.


The Ballad of Sir Edmund Hillary on Record

1960, " The Voyagers" His Master's Voice 7EGM6020

Also on the 45 rpm EP recording were songs about Kupe, Abel Tasman, Abel, Jean Batten and Sir Walter Nash.
All songs were composed by Willow Macky and sung by Athol Freshney with orchestral accompaniment led by Oswald Cheesman.

 

Willow Macky

Katherine Faith (Willow) Macky (b. 1921, d. 2006) was one of New Zealand's leading composers of folk-style music and songs about New Zealand's towns, history and heroes. MORE


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